WTF? Radio signals - can someone explain this to me?

[TnT]

I have a little portable music player that picks up 91.5 FM really well. When taking the light rail (45 min) to my parents house I never lose the signal. Other stations aren't so great though.

I have a clock-radio with a much bigger antenna. I can only pick up 91.5 when I physically have my arm on top of the radio. Other stations get picked up well.

I vaguely remember that antennae length matching the wavelength will pick up a signal better. But it seems kind of ridiculous that the reception is inusable on my clock-radio for one station. Is that really the cause?

Oh and the mp3 player is a digital tuner whereas the clock is a physical dial tuner.

It really sucks because I want to listen to 91.5 in the morning.

[rylan]

Pretty hard to say exactly, but the design of the antenna has a lot to do with it. Clock radios just use a wire and loop, which is fine for some things but is also gets interference quite easily. Its probably picking up interference from itself and the line transformer to the power cord. Its also probably likely that the portable one with the digital tuner has some simple signal locking and tracking technology, so it grabs the strongest part and rejects the noise. That works fine for medium to strong signals, but it probably won't get weak stations while an analog style tuner still can.

[ND66]

Maybe you are the portable music player “walking” antenna???



.

[lowlifecat]

with my mp3 player, the headset wire is the antenna.

[TnT]

Yeah as I understand it the headphone is supposed to act as part of the antenna, I guess I'm more pissed that the clock-radio can't get the station. I think rylan answered my question though.

Thanks